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PARTISAN REVIEW
on, all for the purposes of attack. Dery, taxed with having committed
the worst of crimes, namely, the organization of a fraction within the
Party, was at the same time called upon to reflect, ·and to submit.
Several minor writers, called together by the Central Committee and
intimidated by Rakosi's wrath, did in fact retract their signatures. But
Dery, Hay, Zoltan Zelk held firm and refused to be browbeaten. Fearful
of alienating the "liberal" wing (notably Mikoyan) in Moscow, Rakosi
was hesitant to throw them in jail. Now, a hesitant tyrant is one marked
for public vengeance.
Meanwhile, the 20th Congress took place, with its partly public,
partly secret demolition of the Stalin myth, the cult of Big Brother,
terrorist techniques, and administrative autocracy. Everybody in Hun–
gary, and above all the writers, interpreted the resolutions of this
Congress as a condemnation of Rakosi, a justification of Imre Nagy,
an encouragement from on high to clean up and democratize public
life by a clear-cut recognition of realities.
From that moment on, the writers' struggle against the censorship
was transformed into a wider struggle against the dictatorship. They
demanded that the nation as a whole be given a chance to be heard.
Rakosi's effort to take over de-Stalinization was greeted by the Writers'
Union with an explosion of wrath. And when Rakosi, between two sen–
tences on the economic situation, "rehabilitated" Rajk in a cavalier aside,
dumping all responsibility for the 1949 trial on Gabor Peter, a Hun–
garian sub-Beria, the writer Sandor Lukacsy rose at
:1
stormy meeting
of the Union and shouted: "That explanation is worthy of a Judas."
When some of the Stalinists protested, the hall was thrown into pande–
monium; and the representative of the Central Committee, who was
in the chair, was thrown into such a panic by this mutinous tumult
that he adjourned the meeting and had the hall cleared.
Three days later the writers met again. (The Party leadership
was unable to prevent these meetings, as Moscow had "advised" the
Party brethren to foster widespread discussion of the decisions of the
20th Congress.) A representative of the Central Committee, Marton
Horvath, opened the session with the announcement that Lukacsy had
been expelled from the Party because of insulting remarks he had made
against Rakosi. A number of writers-among them, Peter Veres, the
President of the Union-protested violently. Horvath proposed on behalf
of the Party leadership the election of a new Secretary, one Csabai,
whose name many of the writers had never even heard before. The
proposal was voted down, 100-3. Then Thomas Aczel took the floor, ex–
pressing the "utter lack of confidence of the Hungarian intelligentsia
in Rakosi," and called for his resignation.
